First artists for this year's Insomnia

We are proud to present Tim Hecker, one of the world's foremost experimental electronic musicians. Hecker has in the past year released two well received albums, "Konoyo" and "Anoyo". Here he has collaborated with Japanese musicians on traditional instruments, and together they have created a lovely dialogue between a modern electronic expression and some of the world's oldest instruments.

The Canadian music scene is progressive and rich, and two other artists from the province of Québec in Canada will also perform: RAMZi is known for her unique cocktail of Caribbean music, Jazz and Dub. We also present a new audiovisual project, Hautschildt & Ratté. This is a meeting between the innovative visual artist Sabrina Ratté from Montréal and musician Steve Hauschildt from Chicago.

Some of the most innovative artistry on the Norwegian scene comes from queer artist Bendik Giske. Through the saxophone, he expresses endurance, physics and vulnerability in a mix of club music and free jazz. The minimalist art-pop from the Norwegian-German duo Easter will capture the avant-garde, free, seeking souls in the audience.

The label Nyege Nyege Tapes in Kampala has opened up new directions in global dance music. We present Nihiloxica, a six-person ensemble consisting of 5 (!) Percussionists and electronics. Live, they bring an indescribable African rhythmic trance. The second artist from the Kampala-based label is Bamba Pana & Makaveli. They bring the lightning fast rap music Singeli from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Singeli is gaining popularity and spreading rapidly across the world now, and Bamba Pana & Makaveli give you rhythms and rap, in 180 BPM +. Fierce!

From the United States comes the multi-artist Juliana Huxtable. Juliana is a DJ, artist, performer, writer and speaker who explores topics such as queer, race, gender, identity, technology. She mixes multiple genres of modern club music with edge, presented in a skillful and eclectic scruffy style. Insomnia also keeps the door open to the east, and Buttechno from Moscow will bring his post-Soviet retro techno from the top shelf. His Boiler Room set is referred to as innovative, with plenty of retro-minimalist inspiration.

Activities will take place in many places around Tromsø. As before, Insomnia will cooperate with large and small institutions throughout the city: DRIV, Tvibit, Tromsø Library, Small Projects, Kurant and Tromsø Art Association.